Cedar County Historical Society Become a member

Cedar Falls, Kansas

Tune into
Cedar County.

Hear the voices, trace the families, and keep the county's history where it belongs.

Listen to a story Support the society
Museum Archive Oral history School tours Membership
Tuned  ·  Oral history project Five stops on the dial, one county

Now recording

Oral histories,
played back.

The oral history project records county voices where they live — kitchens, church halls, front porches — and files every session in the archive for the people who come after.

Listen in the listening room with the written transcript open beside you, or take the chair and add your own voice to the reel.

Keep the reel turning

Listening room

Hear it, then read it

Segments play in the gallery with the transcript open on the table beside the speaker — listen, or read along at your own pace.

Your turn

Add your voice

If your family is from Cedar County, there is a chair, a microphone and a quiet room waiting. Sessions are arranged ahead of time, and can run as long as the stories do.

Reel 01

Working lives

Farm and ranch years, trades and the rhythm of a county that lives by the season.

Reel 02

Main Street

Storefronts, trade and the people who kept the lights on downtown.

Reel 03

School days

Classrooms, church suppers and the neighbours who raised each other.

Reel 04

Weather and water

Floods, droughts and the seasons the county remembers together.

Museum

The museum floor,
always on.

Museum admission is the front door to everything the society keeps — the tools, textiles, photographs and papers that came out of county homes and barns and stayed here, where they belong.

  • 01

    The county collection

    Objects and documents from across Cedar County — catalogued, cared for, and on view in the galleries in Cedar Falls.

  • 02

    Displays from the vault

    Materials that spend most of their life in storage come out in rotation, so there is usually something on the floor you have not seen.

  • 03

    Visiting as a group

    School groups and community groups are welcome — let us know when you are coming and we will have the gallery ready.

Museum gallery interior with wooden display cases and warm afternoon light
The galleries in Cedar Falls, from the county collection.

School and group visits

Bring a class into the gallery and the county becomes a place with names and faces. Tours pair what is in the cases with the voices that recorded it, so the history arrives as sound and object together.

Tours are arranged ahead of time — send a note with your group size and the dates you have in mind, and we will shape the visit around what your class is studying.

A school group moving through the museum gallery, looking into display cases
A class working through the gallery cases.

Artifact donations

The collection grows because county families bring things home to it.

A photograph, a ledger, a tool, a uniform, a letter — if you are holding something that belongs to the county's story, bring it in. We will tell you what we can care for and how it would be used.

Request line

The request
line is open.

The genealogy archive holds county records, family files and photograph collections. Tell us what you know and what you are looking for — the search starts there.

  1. Send your request

    Share the names, dates and townships you are working from — as much or as little as you have.

  2. We search the archive

    The search works through county records, family files and the photograph collections held by the society.

  3. You get an answer

    Findings, copies of what we locate, and leads for the next line of enquiry.

Working from a family name and nothing else? That is a perfectly good place to start — the county records are indexed by township and by decade.

Hands turning the pages of an old county ledger in the archive reading room
The archive reading room — records by township and decade.

Sustaining listener

Keep the signal strong.

Membership and the annual fund are how the work stays on — museum admission, the genealogy archive, the oral history project, school tours, and the care of everything the county has trusted us with.

Annual fund

Keep the reels turning.

Gifts to the annual fund go straight to the work: recording sessions, archive supplies, school visits, and the everyday care of the collection.

Give to the annual fund

Membership

Become a member.

Members hold up the whole society — and hear about each part of it first.

  • Museum admission
  • Genealogy archive research
  • Oral history project
  • School tours
  • Care of the collection

Ask at the museum desk for current tiers and giving levels.

Join the society

The county's story needs another voice.

Become a member